When customers love your content you’re on to a winner

According to HubSpot’s latest research, generating traffic and leads is a constant challenge for 63% of marketers. But the reality is when customers love your content they’ll keep coming back for more. In other words, when customers find that your content is lively,thoughtful, engaging, and adds real value to their lives they become leads without any additional pushing from your marketing team.

The reality is that outstanding web content is a vital part of any Inbound or Content marketing approach. Research tells us that regularly contributing to a great blog is enormously beneficial for building leads. In fact, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month gained 4.5 times more leads than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts. (HubSpot, 2015).

When you start writing great website content you’ll not only gain more leads but your readers will share your content more and you’ll start building links naturally back to your site. And, what’s more your SEO ranking will start to improve naturally with higher organic search results.

And when customers love your content it’s the start of a great relationship because those customers will become your greatest promoters.

How to create great content

Writing great website content, like all good things, takes time. As with any relationship you have to invest in the conversation. The reality is your website visitors or blog readers have a problem–that’s why they’re there isn’t it? So, you need to understand your customers, their problems and their pain points. You need to walk along side them and offer them truly valuable solutions to their problems. And you do that through great web content.

However, you first have to get your customers to read your brilliant website page or great blog. As many as 8 out of 10 people never make it past the headline of a website page. You might have an amazing offer but if you can’t get people to go beyond the headline you’re sunk. So crafting headlines that catch eyeballs is the first step to writing great website content.

And it’s not easy crafting those hard-to-resist headlines. A skilled copywriter may not produce a lot of words but a great headline is priceless. That’s why Copyblogger cites the trusted 50/50 rule. That means you need to devote at least as much time working and reworking your headlines as you do writing the content itself. This practice proved very effective for Advertising greats such as David Ogilvy and Gene Schwartz and it holds true today.

Snappy headlines are only half the battle

Congratulations, your readers are moving beyond your headlines so what’s next? We’ve already touched on how your content must answer your potential customers’ deep needs. In the old days of marketing the salesperson would tell customers which product would provide the best solution for their needs. But today consumers are doing their own research and coming to their own conclusions. It might sound harsh but in today’s world only 29% of people want to talk to a salesperson to learn more about a product, while 62% will get their answers through a search engine. (HubSpot, 2016).

Your focus in web content writing is to support your customers in that journey. That’s why the idea of having a conversation with your customers is so important. Writing great website content is about meeting your consumers on their level. Don’t hide behind technical language or lengthy complex sentences. Write in simple, succinct, clear phrases. Aim for around 20 words in most of your sentences. And produce thoughtful content that shows you have heard your customers and want to respond to their needs.

Use contractions such as ‘don’t’ or ‘can’t’ instead of ‘do not’ or ‘cannot’. Focus on using direct active voice language. The passive voice is much less direct, uses more words and tends to sound a little formal or old-fashioned.

You’ll also want to break up large sections of text with sub-headings and use white space to make it easier for readers to digest your message. Use images to amplify the impact of your content. Colours and fonts too are part of great web page design and can make a significant difference for readers.

And be careful how you use those pop-up ads: 81% of consumers have closed a browser or exited a webpage because of a pop-up ad. (HubSpot, 2016)

If you’re ready for web content writing that really works for your business then book me. And remember, when customers love your content you’re on to a winner.